Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Destination: Alpha Centauri => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on January 22, 2014, 07:11:46 pm

Title: Water Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres, May Erupt from Ice Volcanoes
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 22, 2014, 07:11:46 pm

Water Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres, May Erupt from Ice Volcanoes
SPACE.com
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer  35 minutes ago


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/VtwPlG6yI7kKwAtPVOcWbg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTM0NTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz01NzU-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/Water_Found_on_Dwarf_Planet-7bf13308dc73a8963fa7aa96b5e9871b)
An artist's impression of water outgassing from two sources on the dwarf planet Ceres, which is also the largest asteroid in the solar system.



Astronomers have discovered direct evidence of water on the dwarf planet Ceres in the form of vapor plumes erupting into space, possibly from volcano-like ice geysers on its surface.

Using European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, scientists detected water vapor escaping from two regions on Ceres, a dwarf planet that is also the largest asteroid in the solar system. The water is likely erupting from icy volcanoes or sublimation of ice into clouds of vapor.

"This is the first clear-cut detection of water on Ceres and in the asteroid belt in general," said Michael Küppers of the European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain, leader of the study detailed today (Jan. 22) in the journal Nature.

The research has implications for how Ceres formed, and supports models that suggest the planets moved around a lot within the solar system during its formation, Küppers told SPACE.com.

Ceres, a dwarf planet or giant asteroid (depending on the definition used), is the largest object in the asteroid belt, orbiting at 2.8 astronomical units (the distance from Earth to the sun). The "snowline" is thought to partition the solar system into dry objects inside the asteroid belt, and icy objects such as comets further out. But the finding of water on Ceres suggests more mixing has occurred.

Scientists have suspected that there is a substantial amount of water on Ceres for about 30 years. A study found hints of water in the form of hydroxide, a product of water's dissociation, on Ceres in 1991, but the finding wasn't confirmed by later observations. Now, Küppers and his colleagues have confirmed the finding.


(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/13VOn4jbNRXQUG.Qtkfuig--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQxNTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz01NzU-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/Water_Found_on_Dwarf_Planet-de8a552a93de9c6c0c28fd53b1a54bb6)
An artist's depiction of the dwarf planet Ceres. Observations by ESA's Herschel space observatory between 2011 and 2013 find that the dwarf planet has a thin water vapor atmosphere.


The researchers used the Herschel Space Observatory's spectrometer to look for signals of water. Clouds of water vapor around Ceres absorbed the heat that radiates from the dwarf planet, which Herschel's instrument detected. The team found that Ceres produces about 2×10^26 molecules, or 13 lbs. (6 kilograms), of water vapor per second from its surface.

One possible source of the water is icy volcanism. "It is like volcanism in that hot material from the interior is 'spat out' to the surface," Küppers said — much like a geyser. But these icy volcanoes eject water vapor instead of molten rock, he said.

Another possibility is that ice near the surface of Ceres sublimes, or goes directly from a solid to a gas, dragging with it dust from the surface and exposing more ice. A similar process occurs on comets.

"I personally consider cometary-style sublimation the most likely source, because I find it difficult to maintain the internal heat over the age of the solar system to maintain volcanoes," Küppers said, but he added that more studies were needed.


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Vf8Aj6Y7oSv.87EoJp26tg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQxNTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz01NzU-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/Water_Found_on_Dwarf_Planet-499eb6b9635781896e745bd263bde600)
An artist's impression of the dwarf planet Ceres, which appears to have a water vapor atmosphere from outgassing on the object. Inset: The water absorption signal detected by the European Space Agency's Herschel space observatory


NASA's Dawn spacecraft, set to go into orbit around Ceres in early 2015, could answer some questions about the water on Ceres. Dawn recently visited the asteroid Vesta, a baked world whose surface is covered with volcanic eruptions.

"One of the most puzzling questions about the origin and evolution of asteroids is why Vesta and Ceres are so different," astrophysicists Humberto Campins and Christine Comfort at the University of Central Florida in Orlando wrote in an article in the same issue of Nature.

Water vapor can transport a lot of heat, so when Ceres formed 4.6 billion years ago, sublimation of water ice might have dissipated much of its heat into space, Campins and Comfort wrote. "This would have stopped Ceres from ending up with an igneous surface like that of Vesta."

Detecting water on Ceres supports models of the solar system in which giant planets, such as Jupiter, migrated to their current positions, mixing material from the outer and inner regions of the solar system. This mixing could have moved Ceres and Vesta far from the sites where they formed. Ceres probably formed close to its current position, but accreted material from further out, Küppers said.

The findings also suggest that asteroids may have delivered some of the water in Earth's oceans.


http://news.yahoo.com/water-found-dwarf-planet-ceres-may-erupt-ice-182225337.html (http://news.yahoo.com/water-found-dwarf-planet-ceres-may-erupt-ice-182225337.html)

Title: Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 22, 2014, 08:11:49 pm

Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres
By ALICIA CHANG (AP Science Writer)  33 minutes ago


LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The largest object in the asteroid belt just got more attractive: Scientists have confirmed signs of water on the dwarf planet Ceres, one of the few bodies in the solar system to hold that distinction.

Peering through the Herschel Space Observatory, a team led by the European Space Agency detected water plumes spewing from two regions on Ceres.

The observations, published in Thursday's issue of Nature, come as NASA's Dawn spacecraft is set to arrive at the Texas-sized dwarf planet next year.

It's long been suspected that Ceres is water-rich, but previous detections have been inconclusive. This is the first definitive evidence of water on Ceres and confirms that it has an icy surface, said lead author Michael Kuppers of the European Space Agency.

''It makes Ceres a more exciting target'' for exploration, he said.

The latest finding puts Ceres in a special class of solar system objects with active plumes of water, a key ingredient for life. The company includes Jupiter's moon Europa - where an underground ocean is believed to exist - and the Saturn moon Enceladus, where jets have been seen venting from the surface.

The source of the water plumes is still unclear. Scientists think there may be a layer of ice just below the surface that gets heated by the sun or the plumes could be spewed by ice volcanoes.

Dawn won't be in the best position to witness any water activity since it'll arrive at a time when Ceres is far from the sun. But the spacecraft carries instruments that can detect water and it will map the dwarf planet in detail, said Dawn deputy project scientist Carol Raymond, who had no role in the telescope discovery.

Launched in 2007 and powered by ion propulsion, Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two space rocks.

Ceres is different from Dawn's first target, Vesta, the second largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The zone is littered with rocks left over from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, allowing scientists to study how Earth and the other planets evolved.

Unlike Ceres, Vesta is dry and rugged. Its scars reveal it got whacked twice by smaller asteroids. Some of the debris was cast into space and rained on Earth as meteorites.

---

Online:

Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature (http://www.nature.com/nature)


http://news.yahoo.com/telescope-spies-water-plumes-dwarf-180920936--spt.html (http://news.yahoo.com/telescope-spies-water-plumes-dwarf-180920936--spt.html)

Title: Re: Water Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres, May Erupt from Ice Volcanoes
Post by: Geo on January 22, 2014, 08:16:01 pm

Perhaps an impact was observed?

Title: Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 22, 2014, 11:06:12 pm

Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres
Associated Press
By ALICIA CHANG  1 hour ago


(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/eItKEC0qSYR0EWfVYwTsZQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTU3NjtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/9e0d6e9b1d1caa03490f6a706700d076.jpg)
This artist rendering released by IMCCE (Institut de Mecanique Celeste et de Calcul des Ephemerides) shows water plumes spewing from the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres. Scientists led by the European Space Agency observed the plumes and reported their findings in the Jan. 23, 2014 issue of the journal Nature. (AP Photo/ IMCCE, Paris Observatory, CNRS)



LOS ANGELES (AP) — The largest object in the asteroid belt just got more attractive: Scientists have confirmed signs of water on the dwarf planet Ceres, one of the few bodies in the solar system to hold that distinction.

Peering through the Herschel Space Observatory, a team led by the European Space Agency detected water plumes spewing from two regions on Ceres.

The observations, published in Thursday's issue of Nature, come as NASA's Dawn spacecraft is set to arrive at the Texas-sized dwarf planet next year.

It's long been suspected that Ceres is water-rich, but previous detections have been inconclusive. This is the first definitive evidence of water on Ceres and confirms that it has an icy surface, said lead author Michael Kuppers of the European Space Agency.

"It makes Ceres a more exciting target" for exploration, he said.

The latest finding puts Ceres in a special class of solar system objects with active plumes of water, a key ingredient for life. The company includes Jupiter's moon Europa — where an underground ocean is believed to exist — and the Saturn moon Enceladus, where jets have been seen venting from the surface.

The source of the water plumes is still unclear. Scientists think there may be a layer of ice just below the surface that gets heated by the sun or the plumes could be spewed by ice volcanoes.

Dawn won't be in the best position to witness any water activity since it'll arrive at a time when Ceres is far from the sun. But the spacecraft carries instruments that can detect water and it will map the dwarf planet in detail, said Dawn deputy project scientist Carol Raymond, who had no role in the telescope discovery.

Launched in 2007 and powered by ion propulsion, Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two space rocks.

Ceres is different from Dawn's first target, Vesta, the second largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The zone is littered with rocks left over from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, allowing scientists to study how Earth and the other planets evolved.

Unlike Ceres, Vesta is dry and rugged. Its scars reveal it got whacked twice by smaller asteroids. Some of the debris was cast into space and rained on Earth as meteorites.

___

Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia (http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia)


http://news.yahoo.com/telescope-spies-water-plumes-dwarf-planet-ceres-180733425.html (http://news.yahoo.com/telescope-spies-water-plumes-dwarf-planet-ceres-180733425.html)

Title: Scientists prove dwarf planet Ceres contains water
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 22, 2014, 11:08:43 pm

Scientists prove dwarf planet Ceres contains water
BY Jon Fingas  January 22nd, 2014 at 5:13PM ET


(http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/adam/7e1740ab5309c0d5a0e544b8eec5ec40/ceres-water-detection.jpg)
Water signal detected at Ceres  [Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab/Küppers et al.]



Scientists have long thought that the dwarf planet Ceres might hold some form of water, but they've only had indirect evidence at best -- until today, that is. An ESA-led team has used signal fluctiations to confirm that the asteroid belt planetoid is spewing water vapor from two points on its surface, creating both ice and a rudimentary atmosphere. It isn't clear what's producing the vapor, although researchers believe that geysers, thawing or icy volcanoes may be responsible. Whatever is behind Ceres' behavior, the discovery could improve our understanding of how water reached Earth. We'll get a much clearer picture of what's happening in early 2015, when NASA's Dawn probe swings by to map the mini-planet's water activity in greater detail.


http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/22/scientists-prove-dwarf-planet-ceres-contains-water/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000589 (http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/22/scientists-prove-dwarf-planet-ceres-contains-water/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000589)